Divorce settlements have become ludicrously expensive. So who'd ever want to get married? An imminent High Court battle — and a raft of similar cases — may make matters worse. By David Rowan

Marriage came at a price for Alan Miller — £4,935.83 a day, to be precise. The 2¾ years the 41-year-old fund manager shared with his American-born wife, Melissa, did not produce any children, but she gave up her £85,000 job anyway, to divide her time between their newly refurbished Chelsea town house and the villa in the south of France. So when the Court of Appeal ruled this July that Melissa Miller, 36, should leave the short, ill-fated marriage with £5m of her husband's wealth, a flurry of consternation swept through London's legal establishment. Why, demanded eminent QCs and £350-an-hour family lawyers, were the judges once again hammering a rich husband simply to fund an ex-wife's lavish lifestyle? What attraction would matrimony ever hold to high-earning men if even a brief, childless union could imperil assets accumulated well before they tied the knot?